Part CAD, test-bench logs, calibration and validation records
Can an automotive supplier sell its CAD data to an AI company?
Sell automotive data to AI once the carmaker's terms are settled
An automotive supplier's engineering record is shaped by the carmakers it supplies as much as by the tools it uses. We read the simulation, test, vehicle-data and portal vendors' own terms, 10 documents from 8 of them up to 2026-10-28, and beside them the purchase terms carmakers publish for their suppliers.
Source: Automotive software data terms: every row, with its source
Describe the engineering record
3 stagesHow it works
- Tell us what the record holds, which programmes it came from and where it is kept.
- We read your answers against the carmakers' purchase terms on our board and the tools' clauses.
- You get a written reply about which part of the record looks like yours to license, and you decide what happens next.
No carmaker, tool vendor, portal or buyer named here pays for a place on this site, and none of its links earns a commission. The rows are our reading of published documents, not legal advice on your own purchase orders. How we are paid: if a supplier licenses its engineering data to a buyer we introduce, our fee is 12.5% of the deal, with a minimum, when we act as its exclusive agent, 10%, with a minimum, when the data goes into a bundle, or 10% when it joins the pool, set in writing first; a fee a buyer pays us is credited back to the supplier.
Automotive simulation, test and portal vendors on customer data
Last updated
One row per vendor, linked to the pages we read. Where a row reads not stated, the page we read does not deal with the question; it is not a finding that the vendor's signed licence is silent.
- 4 of 8 automotive simulation, test, vehicle-data and portal vendors we read up to 2026-10-28 keep a right to aggregated or statistical use of the data they collect.(Automotive software data terms: every row, with its source)
| Automotive vendor | Owner of the supplier's uploaded data | Aggregated or statistical use | Training AI | Data after the contract ends | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Foretellix | the business | reserved | not stated | no export promised | Terms of Use |
| IPG Automotive | not stated | reserved | not stated | not stated | General Terms and Conditions |
| Kognic | the business | not stated | not stated | not stated | Privacy Policy |
| Sibros | not stated | not stated | not stated | not stated | Privacy Policy |
| Smartcar | not stated | reserved | not stated | not stated | Terms |
| Sonatus | not stated | not stated | not stated | not stated | Privacy Policy |
| SupplyOn | not stated | not stated | not stated | not stated | General Terms and Conditions for SupplyOn Services |
| Vector | not stated | reserved | not stated | not stated | Privacy Policy |
Method and citation
Each vendor's own published terms were read through estate-fetch and stored whole (sha256 on every row). For every document, four questions were answered from the vendor's own words: who owns the business's data, vendor keeps aggregated or anonymised use, training AI on the business's data, export at exit. Every stated answer carries the sentence it rests on, checked against the stored text; 'not stated' means the document read does not address the question. A vendor with several documents reads 'varies' where they disagree. 8 vendors, 10 documents.
“Automotive simulation, test and portal vendors on customer data”, Sell Automotive Data to AI, https://sellautomotivedatatoai.com/ (updated 2026-10-28).
The detail
Sourced, dated, kept current.
- Can an automotive supplier sell its CAD to AI? The OEM terms
Can an automotive supplier sell its CAD to AI? The carmakers' own purchase terms decide: who owns results, background IP and the drawings a carmaker supplied.
- Selling an automotive supplier: what happens to its engineering data
Selling an automotive supplier moves its engineering data too, but carmakers' terms on confidentiality, tooling and developed IP follow the files into the sale.
- Who buys automotive engineering data, in their own words
Who buys automotive engineering data: Mercor's hardware and manufacturing listings with their published ranges, the data marketplaces, and the company-data licensors.
Common questions
Can an automotive supplier sell its CAD data to an AI company?
Only the work no carmaker owns. In most of the carmaker documents on our board the carmaker owns what the supplier develops under an order, so a supplier's licensable record is usually its own background designs and in-house development, separated from programme work before a buyer sees anything.(Automotive software data terms: every row, with its source)
Which carmakers' terms keep ownership with the supplier?
Mercedes-Benz do Brasil's general purchase terms say nothing in them is an assignment or grant of copyright, patent or licence rights, and leave a component developed for it to the separate contract. Renault's supplier portal conditions keep the intellectual property in the supplier's own content with the supplier.(Automotive software data terms: every row, with its source)
Who owns the drawings a carmaker sent us?
The carmaker, on every document we read that deals with them. Honda UK says patterns, tools, drawings and documents it sends remain its property; Volkswagen Poznań says drawings and models it provides go back to it once the contract is done; Ford says its drawings and know-how remain its property.(Automotive software data terms: every row, with its source)
Do automotive test and simulation tools train AI on our data?
None of the 8 vendors on our board say so in the documents we read: 8 of them are silent on AI training. The documents read for this board are the vendors' published terms of use, general terms and privacy notices, not their signed customer licences.(Automotive software data terms: every row, with its source)
Is anyone asking automotive suppliers for data?
Mercor's Hardware Engineering Company listing, published on 17 October 2026, names automotive suppliers first in its list of industries, ahead of aerospace, robotics and EV and drone makers, and asks for designs the company owns rather than customer IP.(Automotive software data terms: every row, with its source)
What if our record includes a carmaker's confidential test data?
Then it is the carmaker's to license, not ours or yours. Jaguar Land Rover's Australian terms make drawings, test data and specifications it provides, and the deliverables a supplier creates, its confidential information; Volvo Group's keep information obtained through the relationship confidential for ten years after the agreement.(Automotive software data terms: every row, with its source)
Sources
This site's own datasets, every figure quoted from its source and dated:
- Who takes an automotive supplier's engineering data: 6 of 9 buyers whose pages we read license data from the business that holds it, read 28 October 2026.
- What carmakers' purchase terms say about a supplier's…: In 7 of 10 carmaker documents we read, the carmaker owns what the supplier develops under an order, read 28 October 2026.
- Automotive software data terms: 4 of 8 automotive software vendors whose terms we read reserve the right to use their customers' data in aggregated or anonymised form, read 28 October 2026.
| No. | Source | Published by |
|---|---|---|
| [1] | SupplyOn general terms and conditions | supplyon.com |
| [2] | SupplyOn general terms (Japanese PDF) | supplyon.com |
| [3] | dSPACE EULA documents | dspace.com |
| [4] | dSPACE AUTERA EULA annex | dspace.com |
| [5] | dSPACE TargetLink MATLAB module EULA | dspace.com |
| [6] | Vector privacy policy | vector.com |
| [7] | Applied Intuition bystander privacy notice | appliedintuition.com |
| [8] | Applied Intuition privacy policy | appliedintuition.com |